At the foot of the Helan Mountains lies a small county called Helan County, a subordinate county of Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, and this is also my hometown.
Strictly speaking, my memories of the shops and restaurants in this small county are almost entirely frozen in time from over a decade ago. Although I have visited this small town more than once in the past ten-plus years, it is completely different from the days when I was in school, walking the streets all day and wandering aimlessly with classmates in what felt like deep exploration.
This holiday, I brought my child back to Helan to experience a snack that accompanies almost every Helan child throughout their entire childhood — Teacher Wang's Spicy Flatbread. This is a snack made by pouring a specially prepared chili paste over tofu skin and potato slices, then stuffing it into a fennel flatbread, with the cheapest costing 5 yuan each. When I was in school, one spicy flatbread cost only 1 yuan, but even then, I could only afford to buy one during holidays when I had some pocket money.
Teacher Wang's spicy flatbread. Photo courtesy of the interviewee. The taste of this chili-sauce-loaded spicy flatbread varies from person to person, and reviews on rating websites are mixed. However, many Helan natives who study or work elsewhere return to their hometown and almost always try this fennel flatbread drenched in chili sauce, searching for the taste of childhood memories. For many young people living in Yinchuan's urban area, going to Helan for Teacher Wang's spicy flatbread during holidays is no longer anything new.
However, this holiday, because I brought my child back to experience childhood memories, I also took the opportunity to carefully walk around my middle school — Helan No. 1 Middle School — with my family. I was surprised to discover that around the school, snack shops, small supermarkets, stationery stores, skewer hot pot restaurants, as well as currently popular goods stores and perler bead shops are densely distributed. Thinking back to when I was in school, the few stationery stores and small supermarkets around the school could be counted on one hand, and compared to now, the nearby shops have increased several times over. In a small alley, there are still cold noodle shops, wonton shops, and spicy flatbread shops that have been open for more than 20 years, which should not be a coincidence.
At the wonton shop, a large bowl of wontons costs 9 yuan, and a small bowl costs 8 yuan. If you ask the owner how many wontons are in a large bowl versus a small bowl, the owner replies: "I haven't counted, but it's a full big bowl anyway." The wontons that arrive are indeed a full big bowl, with vegetarian chive-filled wontons that are not particularly large in size, but it was not even mealtime in the afternoon, and the shop was already continuously filled with diners, quickly reaching full capacity with booming business.
After the family finished the wontons, we walked around the streets near Helan No. 1 Middle School again and found that some perler bead shops and goods stores on Ju'an East Road to the south had quite a few customers, and the cold noodle shops, wonton shops, skewer hot pot restaurants, and spicy paste shops in Yucai Alley and Tiyu Alley were almost all full of customers.
Nighttime on the streets of Helan. Photo courtesy of Helan County Media Center. Not only that, but many chain coffee and milk tea shops have also appeared in the small county. Twenty years ago when I was in middle school, it was very difficult to find a place to drink coffee in this small county. The only impression I have is buying a cup of black coffee brewed from instant coffee powder at a bar at the end of the pedestrian street next to the old county government, priced at 4 yuan (if I remember correctly), enough to buy 4 of Teacher Wang's spicy flatbreads.
Driving further north, a brightly lit farmhouse restaurant caught my attention. Opening my dining guide — a certain restaurant review app — I checked and found that this restaurant ranked second on Yinchuan's farmhouse cuisine taste list, with many diners who came from the urban area writing positive reviews about the taste. Not only is the restaurant business in the small county flourishing, but the dining scene in the Desheng area of Helan County, which is close to Yinchuan's Xingqing District, has also become one of the most concentrated areas for dining and food in Yinchuan, with internet-famous restaurants and branches of well-known Yinchuan restaurant brands all having locations here. Searching on "Tianyancha" for restaurant enterprises in the Desheng area of Helan County, I found that the number exceeds 300.
There are also some intangible cultural heritage foods I know about, such as lamb offal soup, buckwheat noodles, and hand-grabbed mutton. Although their shops are not in the areas I mentioned, they have all been in operation for at least over ten years, and their good business locally is well known.
Wontons at a wonton shop in Helan County. Photo by a netizen. Is this small county really so lively now? I think this is related to Helan County's geographical location, its efforts to build a livable environment in recent years, and the development of its modern commercial logistics industry. These "award-winning" restaurants are densely distributed in several large residential communities in Helan County near Yinchuan's urban area and around county schools, and foot traffic is the key to supporting the restaurant service industry.
Out of curiosity, I looked up the population situation of Helan County. Data shows that compared to 2010, Helan County's permanent resident population increased by more than 130,000, and as of the end of 2024, the county's permanent resident population was 356,600.
Lamb offal soup in Helan County. Photo courtesy of Helan County Media Center. Hand-grabbed mutton in Helan County. Photo courtesy of Helan County Media Center. In addition, the Desheng area of Helan County currently has more than 100 well-known domestic and international automobile brand sales enterprises settled in, with the automobile sales market radiating to a 500-kilometer radius and accounting for more than 60% of the region's sales. Multiple logistics companies and cold chain enterprises have also settled and set up factories in the Desheng area near Yinchuan's urban area, becoming an important support for the development of the local restaurant service industry.
Currently, the tertiary industry already accounts for more than 60% of Helan County's total GDP. The GDP data for Helan County in 2025 is 17.939 billion yuan, of which the added value of the tertiary industry is 11.105 billion yuan. The service industry has become the most important driving force for the county's economic development.
Being close to the capital's urban area has both advantages and disadvantages for a small county. In terms of dining and entertainment service industries, it is easy to produce a "siphon effect," with foot traffic and customer flow being drawn away. However, Helan's restaurants, relying on their taste and relatively cheap prices, have instead taken advantage of their geographical proximity to Yinchuan's urban area, with farmhouse cuisine and specialty snacks able to attract many urban residents. This is probably the reason why a small town has turned what was originally a "disadvantage" in the service industry into an advantage.
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